After school got out, I felt like I was free from the blog to enjoy summer but now that more then a month has gone by, I need to blog about something. We’ve remodeled a room (which had to remain a surprise until our guests arrived), we’ve planted a garden, worked more in the yard and have had guests for 2 weeks. We’ve been here and there and now we are home again before we go again! So I must catch up at some point otherwise you’ll think I’ve left… for good!

(BTW… be sure to check back to mid June, since my catching up begins there… Enjoy!)

Grandma and Grandpa took Isabel for a few hours while we ran errands and enjoyed our time together. Our plan was to meet up later and go to dinner and then play mini golf but the weather didn’t cooperate for that and Gino (and Dad) and I bought a bunch of new perennial flower plants for the yard!

Looking south east, my Dad helped me arrange the flowers before Gino and I dug the holes to plant them. Last year this area was planted with evergreen shrubs but with all the rain during winter, they didn’t make it. So we decided to go with flowers instead!

Looking north east, we finally got the flowers set up the way I want them. Thank you Dad for the help! They look so good!!!

Isabel had a great day with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa went to play golf and Grandma and Isabel got to ride along in the cart. Isabel even got to drive it! Afterward they went to Old McDonald’s and Isabel got to play in the playground after having lunch.

Getting the flowers in the ground before it started to rain, just as we began to dig the hole for the last flower. Didn’t get it in the ground that day or the next because of rain. We eventually got it planted and the flowers are doing great! The Foxglove seem to have really taken off! We have also attracted a lot of bees to the yard but I don’t mind, as long as they don’t sting!

The lake behind us (by Isabel’s elbow) to the east is Spirit Lake, which used to be a gorgeous, popular place to hang out before the eruption in 1980. The lake rose 200 ft and is 10 percent smaller and shallower then it was before May 18th 1980.

Grandma, Isabel and Grandpa. The area behind them would have been a rich forest of trees, now is lays bare with stumps and trees blasted away from their bases.

Heading back down the other side of the hilltop an arched memorial with the names of the 57 people who dead that day in May of 1980. Very nice.

Out of the ash, new life has begun to grow…

By this time we were all getting a little tired and hungry so we headed back down the mountain side to the the Forest Learning Center. Our hope was to spot some of the Elk that roam along the valley floor just below the Center. We did see a few of them but they stick to the trees and bushes that have grown in the area.

I tried to get a picture of the trees that were planted along the way. When you looked at them your eyes would go blurry from looking at them. It was odd.

After the eruption the area had problems with flooding and slides. So volunteer’s came in and planted over 800,000 trees by hand! Tree planting is still going on in the area today to help with erosion and to make the landscape more inviting to the elk that have returned to the area.

Finally a family photo… right on!

Even our “old girl” got to see Mt. St. Helen’s but this was the closest she actually got to see it because dogs are not allowed outside of the vehicle at the Observatory. Don’t think she’s to bothered by it though she’s just happy to be with her man!

Isabel and I.

Isabel doing her impersonation of a firework!

33 miles down from the Observatory we found a nice little place to eat called Patty’s Place at 19 Mile House.

The after dinner homemade berry cobbler with ice cream was yummy-good!!